I believe (and believed at the time) that closing the schools was a mistake but I also know that it was done with good intentions based on the information we had at the time and that there is no need to “hold anyone accountable”. I do think some are romanticizing life before phones. As a child of the 60s and 70s I put myself in and was put in a lot of dangerous situations and did a lot of stupid things with no oversight and no way for anyone to find me if things went sideways. My kid had a fair amount of freedom starting in elementary school - she walked places and rode her bike places and later drove places -I tried hard not to be overprotective and limited both screen time and social media when she was younger but having a phone gave me some peace of mind when she was /is off wherever and it gave her a way to be in touch with friends during those terrible Covid isolation months (FaceTime, group chats and so on). She probably spends too much time in her phone - as do I! - but is certainly not glued to it and loves to walk in the woods and read actual books.
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